Obama-era technocrats and Trump cronies may not agree on much, but they have made common cause against occupational licensing. That focus undermines important social objectives while obscuring far more important problems in the labor market. In this post, we cover the basics of licensing, and then reframe current attacks on it. In our next post, we will explain why licensing’s mix of consumer protection and labor market stabilization is a legitimate policy option for a wide range of occupations.